20A - Growing Your Social Capital

1) One person must be a domain expert in your industry. This would be someone who's engaged in the same type of business activity as you would like to be. They may own the same kind of company that you would like to own, or they may be a technical expert who knows a lot about the kind of product or service that you would like to produce.

• 1) Bethany, a local Sephora employee.
• 2) Domain Expert
• 3) I went to Sephora to speak to one of their employees.
• 4) There was no return expectation! She was just at the store doing her job and was happy to answer a few questions.
• 5) I'm not sure that having Bethany in my network will do much, because shopping and stocking decisions are made at Sephora Corporate, rather than local stores. However, she is a nice friend to have and a friendly face for advice/future questions in my local area.

2) One person must be an expert on your market. This would be someone who is targeting your market with similar products services -- or knows a lot about conducting customer research in your area -- or represents a major piece of your market (this might be most applicable with B2B markets).

• 1) Alexandra, an owner of a local mom-and-pop beauty/skincare store.
• 2) Market Expert
• 3) I knew that this store existed and was locally owned, so I went and asked for the owner/founder.
• 4) They gave me some of their time and explained some of their products and how they conduct their marketing. I purchased a product from the store and it seemed that it was appreciated.
• 5) I think that having her in my network is very beneficial, as she has her own start-up and a lot of experience. I connected with her on LinkedIn and we exchanged emails. If I was starting this business, she would be a great person to ask advice from or talk to if I had any issues/questions.

3) One person must be an important supplier to your industry. This would be someone who is selling products and services to other organizations/firms in your industry. 

• 1) A supplier of organic herbs/plants/oils that can be used in beauty/skincare products (he asked to remain anonymous).
• 2) Supplier
• 3) I asked Alexandra where they get some of their raw materials that they use for their products and she directed me to this individual.
• 4) This exchange was a little more forced. He is a busy man and wasn't as generous with is time as the other two, however he was willing to answer a few questions of mine and connect with me on LinkedIn.
• 5) This would be a very important contact for starting my business. Now that I have established a relationship with a supplier, I would be able to organize purchase deals and more, especially after being referred by a current customer of theirs.

Finally: Reflect. It was a good experience of more cold-call networking. Most of my networking has been in organized events where people want to and came to talk to you. This gave me a feel of a more real-world type of networking that will be useful in building a business.